Chapter 230
Late at night in Gomel, a drizzle mixed with snowflakes was still falling.
Amid the dull whistle, a train with more than a dozen carriages slowly pulled into the Belarus Station in the south of the city.
The platforms on both sides of the railway, which had not yet been fully repaired, were crowded with Soviet soldiers in coats waiting for the train to finally stop - this was the fourth military train to arrive tonight.
In the past few months, the military trains from the east have not stopped. According to the order of the Supreme Command, in order to support the entire Belarusian campaign and the subsequent battle to advance into Poland, logistical supplies and weapons and equipment were transported from the Ural direction in five batches. Each batch had an average of more than 100 trains and more than 1,300 carriages.
These trains will transport more than 400,000 tons of ammunition, more than 300,000 tons of fuel and more than 500,000 tons of food to Belarus, not including various weapons and equipment, cotton coats and military boots, and additional troops.
Filia Vladimirovna Roskach, holding her camera, went onto the platform under the guidance of two Internal Affairs soldiers. She walked through the crowded crowd of soldiers, stood at the edge of the platform, and took a few photos using the light from the platform.
The train finally pulled into the station slowly. The airflow brought by the train body blew the blue boat cap on Filia's head to the ground. Her long golden hair was blown to the ground and scattered on her face.
A young soldier who had noticed her a long time ago bent down, picked up her hat, patted it on his body, and handed the hat to her with a red face, but this attracted a lot of noisy cheers from a group of soldiers around him.
"Thank you, comrade," Filia didn't care about all this. She took the hat and put it on her head casually. Then she picked up the camera and focused on a place about ten meters away on the right side of the platform.
In that direction, a young man in a leather military coat was talking to a middle-aged man. The middle-aged man's military uniform showed that he was an air force commander and a lieutenant general. More importantly, Filia knew this middle-aged man. He was the commander of the 9th Air Force Army, Fyodor Petrovich Porenin.
Filia is a reporter for Komsomolskaya Pravda. She just started working two months ago. The first important person she interviewed was Porenin. However, she was not sure whether the other party still remembered her.
Filia didn't know who the young man next to Borynin was. There were no epaulettes or collar flowers on his leather coat, and his face was in the shadows, so she couldn't see it clearly. But judging from his age, he should be Borynin's guard or assistant.
Holding the camera, Filia took two photos of Porenin. After the flash went off, the young man immediately noticed it. He seemed to frown and looked over here, revealing a face that looked somewhat familiar.
Before Filia could find the other person's face in her mind, an officer who was standing behind Borinin and the other man quickly walked over here. He said from a few steps away: "Who are you? Hand over your camera!"
The officer's rank was lieutenant colonel, and he spoke in a harsh tone, which naturally made people feel uncomfortable.
The two soldiers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs came forward and seemed to explain something to him. However, the lieutenant colonel obviously did not give the two soldiers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs any face. He did not know what he said to the two soldiers, and the three of them actually turned back together.
"Comrade Filia Vladimirovna, I'm very sorry, you have to hand the film over to this lieutenant colonel comrade," said an Internal Affairs soldier who was responsible for escorting Filia helplessly.
"Why?" Filia found it difficult to understand. She hugged her camera tightly and asked .
The lieutenant colonel didn't seem to be in the mood to explain to her. He took a step forward and reached out to grab the camera from Filia's hand.
"Arseni!"
At this moment, the young man standing next to Porenin called out.
After hearing the call, the young lieutenant colonel gave up his plan to grab the camera, turned around and ran back quickly.
The young man said something to the lieutenant colonel, who ran back, glanced at the camera in Filia's hand, and said, "You are the reporter from Komsomolskaya Pravda, right? The photo you took just now cannot appear in any newspaper for at least two days, otherwise you will be held responsible."
Having said that, the lieutenant colonel turned and left.
"Is that Comrade General Yuri Arkhipovich?!" At this time, Filia also found the information of the young man in her mind. Yes, this guy who looked a little too young was a frequent guest in newspapers across the Soviet Union some time ago.
Filia was a little excited. She wanted to go up and ask the admiral some questions, but she was stopped by the internal affairs soldiers around her. In the end, she had to give up with regret.
That’s right, the young man standing with Polenin was Yuri. He had just returned from Lechitsa and was about to take a train to Smolensk. The entire Belarusian campaign would begin in that direction.
As the shrill whistle sounded, the soldiers on the platform suddenly became busy. A large number of ammunition boxes were unloaded from the carriages. At the same time, at the rear end of the train, the locomotive was removed and a single passenger carriage was hung on it. That was Yuri's special train.
After the carriages were connected, Yuri took Arseny on the train. The train with only one carriage started moving quickly and slowly drove out of the station.
Filia stood on the edge of the platform, watching the train slowly approaching with her lively eyes. Just as the carriage passed by her, the young reporter actually shook off two soldiers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, grabbed the handrail at the door of the carriage, and jumped onto the step at the door.
…
These days, old-fashioned trains shake violently and make a lot of noise while moving. If it weren't for the weather, Yuri would rather take a car than a train.
In a carriage filled with clanging noises, Yuri was sitting behind a table, flipping through a document in his hand, while opposite him, Filia was already sleeping in a chair.
Yuri was speechless about this courageous girl. She said that she had accepted the commission from the newspaper and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League to do a column about how the Communist Youth League members actively defended the motherland and fought bravely. As a member of the Bolshevik Party, he, as a general, had the responsibility to support her work.
Well, Yuri had to admit that men are always dominated by hormones, and he was indeed interested in this girl with outstanding looks, who looked very much like Natalia Liangbova in later generations. Otherwise, he would not have allowed her to stay in the carriage.
However, Yuri was not thinking about women's issues right now. He was looking at the documents on the table.
Now, he had two documents in his hands that had just been delivered. One of them came from the 1st Baltic Front and was signed by Bagramyan. The content recorded on it came from the Polotsk-Lepeli guerrilla zone behind enemy lines.
According to the records in the documents, just five days ago, part of the German 3rd Tank Army suddenly launched a large-scale offensive against the guerrilla zone. The 60,000 guerrilla soldiers in the guerrilla zone were surrounded and a fierce battle was taking place between the two sides.
Baghramyan suggested using the Ninth Air Force Army to provide support to the guerrillas.
Yuri frowned at the document, hesitated for a long time, and finally signed his name on it.
Yuri hesitated on this issue because he was worried that the deployment of the Air Force would alert the Germans. However, considering that the final offensive would be launched in two days, he agreed to the suggestion.
The Polotsk-Lepel guerrilla zone is the largest guerrilla zone in Belarus. Maintaining the strength of this guerrilla group will provide strong support for the Soviet army's subsequent offensive. This is also Baghramyan's idea.
In fact, the strength of the Soviet guerrillas in the entire Belarus is very strong, with the actual number of troops participating in the combat reaching nearly 300,000. However, they are not under the command of Yuri now, but under the leadership of Comrade Beria.
After signing the first document, Yuri rubbed his temples and glanced at Filia sitting on the chair opposite. The woman was already fast asleep, with her head curled up to her neck, and she was snoring softly in her sleep.
Looking away, Yuri took the second document.
The second document came from the General Staff and contained content from the Karelian Isthmus on the northern front, that is, the direction of the battle against Finland.
At the same time as the countdown to the Battle of Belarus began, in the direction of Leningrad, the Leningrad Front had launched an attack on the Finns.
Just in the past week, the 21st and 23rd Armies of the Leningrad Front, with the cooperation of the Ladoga Fleet and the 13th Air Force Army, launched a full-scale offensive against the 3rd and 4th Infantry Armies of Finland.
However, this offensive was obviously not satisfactory. Although the attacks of the two armies broke through the Finnish defense line and pushed the front line to Kivenapa and Thula respectively, the Finns' counterattack was also quite sharp. They used the terrain and solid fortifications to inflict heavy losses on the attacking Soviet army.
For a whole week, the Soviet army only advanced less than 60 kilometers, far below the headquarters' estimate, which made Comrade Stalin very dissatisfied.
In the direction of Lake Onega, the Soviet Karelian Front was advancing smoothly. The 9th Army and the 32nd Army, with the cooperation of the Ladoga Fleet and the Onega Fleet, had defeated the defenses of the Finnish 2nd Infantry Army and the 5th Infantry Army and were advancing rapidly towards Suvilahti.
Yuri thought for a long time and wrote a paragraph at the end of the document: It is recommended to temporarily suspend the offensive in the direction of the Karelian Isthmus, redeploy troops, and strengthen the offensive force of the Leningrad Front in the north.
